Ellen Kushner
Born in Cleveland, Ellen Kushner went to Bryn Mawr College then graduated from Columbia
University. Her first novel, Swordspoint, is something of a cult classic
while her second novel, Thomas the Rhymer, won both a World Fantasy
Award and a Mythopoeic Award for best novel of 1990.

For many music fans, sound holds a special magic that can be both enchanting
and invigorating. A well-crafted tune can literally bewitch a listener, carrying
him or her away to distant galaxies or fantastic realms and energizing both
the spirit and the imagination. In that regard music is quite similar to
speculative literature. It also has a mystical element that can at times be
even more powerful than the printed word, according to noted fantasy novelist
and radio host Ellen Kushner. "Nobody understands how music works, and that's
what makes it magical," she states. "Although someone can be a great composer,
just as in a fantasy novel someone can be a great wizard, how they work their
respective magics is still a mystery. That's the wonder of it."

That sense of wonder is important to both music and literature, which Kushner
sees as being thoroughly interrelated. "I cannot read unmusical writing," she
says bluntly. "It doesn't have to be eloquent or florid, but it does have to
be musical. That may mean using dashes in sentences, or putting 'he said'
and 'she said' at natural breaks in the dialogue. The descriptions can
vary. The length of the sentences can vary. Even the vowels you use in a
word can vary, depending on what's happening and how you want the work to
sound as you're reading it. For me, however, everything comes from text,
although I admit text comes from sound so it's sort of like a snake eating its tail."

The interaction of music and words is readily apparent in her
novel Thomas the Rhymer, published in 1990 and winner of both the
Mythopoeic and World Fantasy Awards. The prose tale recounts the
Medieval ballad of True Thomas, who upon meeting the Queen of Elfland
is tricked into becoming her slave. Ultimately he is released, but not
before gaining the gift of prophecy, which becomes both an advantage
and a hindrance as he returns to the mortal world. Kushner studied
that story and dozens of other works of folklore to better understand
and incorporate their elements into her lyrical book.

"There is a particular diction to ballad language," she explains. "There are
standard ways of describing things and standard rhythms to saying things.
Lines like 'I saw the queen, and an angry queen was she' are typical. I tried
to give my work those rhythms. The characters are talking, as it were, in ballad speak."

This harmonic compositional style was even apparent in her first novel, Swordspoint,
though the tale itself featured no overt melodious elements.
"There were no musical instruments, and nobody sings, but I wrote it
very musically," Kushner notes. "I paid a great deal of attention to
rhythm, cadence and tone." Ironically, the book was labeled as 'mannerpunk,' an
adapted musical moniker coined by critic Donald G. Keller for works that
broke with the agrarian, Tolkienian fantasy tradition. "Mannerpunk tended
to have an urban edge," continues Kushner. "In its way it was meant to be
as cutting edge in fantasy as punk rock was to music in its time."

With the May, 1997 release of The Horns of Elfland, an anthology of short
stories that combine the themes of music and magic, her uniquely lyrical
literary vision should become even more evident. This collection, which
she is co-edited with Keller and novelist Delia Sherman, was issued by
Roc Books and offers speculative insights from 15 writers (including Kushner)
into the enchanting energy of music. These tales, most of which have a
contemporary setting, include a jazz-based fable from John Brunner, a
story about a player piano from Gene Wolfe and a yarn set in the world
of hip-hop by newcomer Ray Davis.

Not surprisingly, communicating the importance of the interconnection of
music, literature and human experience is vital for Kushner. "I'm not a
professional musician," she states, although she has occasionally played
guitar in coffee houses and bookstores. "I'm also not a trained musicologist.
Yet when I find out about something interesting I want to share it with
you." This desire is the cornerstone of her nationally syndicated radio
program Sound & Spirit. The weekly show, produced at WGBH Radio in Boston
and distributed by Public Radio International, is a celebration of the
magical power of music.

"Why music and magic?" Kushner writes in the introduction to Solstice,
a story by Jennifer Stevenson from The Horns of Elfland. "Well, besides
the fact that all of us love them both a lot, around the world and
through the ages people have believed that music is full of power, and
that magic needs music." It's clear that for Kushner and fans of
speculative sound, music is not only meaningful but also mystical.
In that sense music, in all its forms, truly is magic.

Jeff Berkwits publishes ASTERISM: The Journal of Science Fiction, Fantasy and
Space Music, and is also a contributor to publications such as Science
Fiction Weekly and Outré.
He has been a speculative fiction fan for most of his life and has fond
memories of reading The Hobbit aloud with his family around the dinner table.